I wish to draw your attention specifically to three sayings by Gorkut Ata:

The Soltan’s right is the same as Allah’s right.

The father’s right is the same as Allah’s right.

The mother’s right is the same as Allah’s right.

The word haq, right, is synonymous with the word justice, huquk. They are indeed the same thing.

Thus, the Türkmen grants almost the same rights as Allah’s to only three people in society: the ruler, the father and the mother. The ruler’s rights imply each and every citizen’s responsibilities before the law and the ruler. The rights of the father and mother also imply one’s responsibilities to one’s parents.

If you are indebted to someone, it means you are to give something to them.

(311) 

The children are indebted to their parents because they raised them to be benevolent people.

(312) 

The children should be indebted to their parents because they helped them become members of society.

(312) 

But the youth mistakenly think that they grew up on their own. They can only understand the sufferings of their parents in raising them when they get married and have children. Therefore our ancestors said the following:

“You will understand the value of those who helped you subsist only when you help others subsist.”

“You will understand the value of those who protect you only when you protect others.”

Helping others subsist and protecting them does not merely mean providing them with material needs. This is patronage and maintenance.

(312) 

One understands the value of one’s parents when one grows older. We start thinking about the value of things only after we lose them. But Türkmen girls and boys should recognize the value of their parents beforehand. Fortunate is the child that pays respect to his parents. Being born itself is a blessing. Transforming the Allah-given blessing of life into real happiness depends only on man’s ability to do so. Life is a blessing bestowed upon us by Allah. Leading a meaningful life is not only a right but also a duty on us. 

(314) 

Allah granted me the chance to lead a life in this world. But Allah deprived me of maternal affection and paternal patronage. Therefore I knew of the value of parents even before I had children. I felt lacking and low in myself compared to my friends when their fathers expressed affection to them. I used to feel bad, in a way inferior, when their fathers would smile at them. 

Yet Allah provided me with the cure for my suffering. Although I was an orphan, I was given by Allah the spiritual power to overcome inferiority, neediness and loneliness. Allah Himself provided me with parental affection and patronage. Allah Almighty also gave me the chance to convey my experience full of pain to others and to tell them what the homeland meant.

My beloved child!

Allah is followed by your father in terms of your patronage.

(314-315) 

The third castle is the home you establish with your beloved one. This is the life castle that will blossom like a rose and gain meaning. You should always remain indebted to your parents when you are in this castle, and you should express your indebtedness. You should behave consistently and show that your parents raised a good child.

(315) 

Listen to the advice of Gorkut Ata: “Gain your reputation while your father is alive, and get ahead while you have your horse.”

Your father is a base for you in society. People measure your value first by looking at your father. Don’t let your father be ashamed among others because of you.

You are the heir of your father. It is not merely wealth that you inherit. Your father’s reputation or dishonour is left to you, too. Your father’s heritage is divided equally among his children, but his authority transfers to you and your brothers undivided.

May you never forget who your father is. Let others say of you, “Better than his father,” and be proud if they say so. Be ashamed if they say of you, “He is not up to his father.”

Don’t you ever forget that you were created out of one drop.

If it weren’t for your father, you wouldn’t exist. You would not have been born if not for him. It is your father’s existence that made your existence in the world of beings possible. Your father is your previous self.

Disregarding your father means disregarding yourself. Being disrespectful to your father is being disrespectful to yourself. The more favours you do your father, the more you do the same for yourself.

(317) 

I spend much time thinking about the relations between fathers and their sons. A Türkmen saying goes: “If your father is a dog, then feed yourself at a trough.”

Once in the old times, a saint spoke ill of a certain man, saying:

“May you bark as a dog does.” The very moment the saint uttered this, the man became a dog, by Allah’s will. That man’s son fed his father at his doorway. After people went to bed, he washed the dog, brushed it and ate at the trough with his dog-father. This lasted seven years. When the saint saw how honest and sincere the son was, he prayed to Allah for the man to become a human being again and afterwards he said to the man:

“Indeed you should have lived in this world as a dog because of your deeds, but I see that you’ve raised a perfect son. It is for that Allah elevated you to your human status again.”

(317-318) 

Men are parts in a chain. Each individual is a part of the chain. You are a part only because your father was a part. Never, ever seek benefits from your father in return for what you did for him, and if he does that, then be patient.

(317-318) 

Fathers don’t die. They live in the souls of their children. I noticed a certain feeling after my youth. I think all mature people have that feeling. I sometimes feel that I am not myself, and I am my father instead. It is as if I touch through his hands and not mine. It is as if I move forward on his feet and not mine. It is as if I speak through his tongue and not mine. This sounds strange and interesting at first sight. It is indeed not the kind of feeling that you could talk about to someone unless you had felt it. At those times, I feel that my father’s movements, characteristics and behaviours are reviving in me. I understand that my father is reviving in me.

This is the kind of feeling that shows one is mature. Try to have this kind of feeling. By doing so, you will extend the life of your father and show respect toward him. 

Respect for the father is respect for the homeland.

(318) 

The religious figure said in reply: “If you do not believe in Allah, go bow to your parents’ graves.” Faith has its origins in belief in the parents. Magtymguly also expressed something in the same vein, “Forgive my sins, for the sake of my parents.” Maintain respect for your parents. Allah will forgive you for the sake of your parents, if not for your own sakes.

(325) 

It is not proper to pay the slightest respect to a person who does not take care of his parents. Even Allah’s angels would 

not pay any respect to the person who does not take care of his parents.

We say the mother is the soil, the father is the homeland.

The mother teaches us to love the soil, and the father teaches us to love the homeland through their painstaking efforts and their lives.

No matter if her child is deaf, disobedient or stupid, a mother will always understand what her child says.

The Türkmens say, “Only the deaf person’s mother understands what the deaf person says.”

“My son, when you were a baby, all you could do was to cry. You could not speak. You could not say a word. I would understand what you meant, though. You are now grown up, but I simply cannot understand you,” complained a mother of her ungrateful son.

An ungrateful person who breaks the heart of his mother cannot achieve anything all through his life.

One who does harm to his mother could do harm to other people and the homeland, too!

Don’t believe it, if they say of someone that he does not take care of his mother, but there are others he takes care of.

I believe the mother carries with her powers and miracles. This I have witnessed many times in my life. If I am going to be happy or upset tomorrow, I see my mother in my dream.

(325-326) 

It is an obligation upon the child to please his parents. When are parents happy with what their children do?

When a child surpasses his father in work, respect, wealth and affluence, then his parents will be as pleased as their child makes them.

(328) 

The child is indebted to his parents to an enormous extent. The child cannot repay the value of even one single day’s effort spent by his parents even if he serves them for a whole lifetime.

(334)